LI>->'EA>' SOCIETY OF LOXDOX. 49 



OBITUAET XOTICES. 



^Vith Pai'l Feiedeich Aucrsx Ascheesox, whose death 

 ■occurred at Berlin ou March 6th of the present year, one of the 

 most remarkable figures has disappeared from the ranks of modern 

 German botauists. Paul Ascherson was born on June 4th, 1834. 

 at Berlin, as the son of Dr. Ferdinand 3Ioritz Ascherson, a 

 prominent medical practitioner. He was educated at the Marg- 

 graff School and the Friedrich AVerder Gymnasium at Berlin, and 

 studied medicine in the university of the same city. In January 

 1855 he obtained the degree of Doctor of Medicnie, and a year 

 later he qualified for a medical practice. His inclination, how- 

 ever, lay with botany, which he studied under Alexander Braun, 

 E. Caspary, and X. Pringsheim. In 1860 he became A. Braun's 

 assistant, a post with which he united later on that of an assistant 

 in the Botanical Museum, rising in the latter eventually to the 

 rank of a second ciistos. This he held until 1SS4, when he 

 retired. Having received the title of a Doctor Philosophise 

 honoris causa from the Cniversity of Eostock, he qualified in 

 the University of Berlin in 1S69. Four years later he was 

 appointed Professor extraordiuarius and in 1908 Professor 

 ordinarioi honoris causa. He was also made a Geheimer Eegie- 

 rungsrat, and was connected with many learned Societies. The 

 Xinnean Society added him to its list of Foreign Members in 

 1905. 



Ascherson"s name \^ill for ever remain connected with the 

 study of the flora of his native country, to which he was devoted 

 from his student days. Xearly all his earlier publications were 

 concerned with it, and particularly with that of the Mai'k 

 Brandenburg. As Professor Urban tells us, he conceived the 

 plan of writing a flora of that province as early as 1855 on the 

 suggestion of his teacher, A. Braun. He at once set to work with 

 great enthusiasm and industry, exploring the province in all 

 directions, and availing himself freely of the help of his numerous 

 correspondents. In 1859 appeared the second and third, in 1864 

 the flrst part of his ' Flora der Provinz Brandenburg, der Altmark 

 und des Herzogthums Magdeburg.' The thoroughness and 

 methodical clearness of the work won him the admiration of his 

 colleagues in the field of regional phytography, and it has for 

 long been held up as a model of a local flora and is even now 

 counted as a classic. After that he directed his attention and his 

 labours to a wider field ; but among the many attractions which 

 his versatile mind encountered and which led him again and again 

 into excursions into matters of a remarkable range of variety, he 

 never lost sight of the real life task which he had set himself, 

 namely, the elaboration of a comprehensive and exhaustive flora 

 of Germany. The preliminary work spread over thirty years, and 

 it was not until 1896 that the first sheets of his great work 

 appeared. But by that time the matter had grown beyond the 



LrN'>". SOC. PROCEEDINGS. SESSION 1912-1913. 6 



